As a result of jail and prison expansion in Eastern Kentucky, the region has become a center of gravity in the fight over the future of the carceral state. To understand this recent carceral boom, we need to appreciate how multiple crises have converged in Eastern Kentucky to produce a historical moment – a conjuncture – in which prisons and jails serve as putative solutions to a variety of economic and political problems.
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Darryl Li on the weaponization of terrorism torts, Emily Prifogle and Jessica Shoemaker on racial disparities in rural America, and Christopher Ali on the erasure of rural communities by the FCC. Plus, we’re asking you (yes you) to tell us about the hottest new LPE law review articles. In exchange, as always, we’ve gathered the best LPE-content from. . .
Broadband access in rural areas in the United States is not only a market failure, but a market disaster, as private providers have little interest in serving expensive, hard-to-reach places. In its most recent attempt to bridge the rural-urban digital divide, Congress allocated $42.5 billion for broadband deployment, the distribution of which is to be. . .
Research on racial disparities tends to focus on the urban, constructing an important story of race-based segregation and inequality that takes place on the city block or the suburban cul-de-sac. But with nearly all farmland in America (98%) owned by white people, these same racial dynamics are just as important to contemporary generational wealth disparities. . .
The D.C. Circuit appeals court heard arguments last month in a bizarre case: the Jewish National Fund is leading a lawsuit against the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, a nation-wide coalition of groups advocating for Palestinian liberation, on accusations of supporting terrorism. A look at the political economy of terrorism tort litigation shows how. . .
Ann Eisenberg kicks off a symposium on the LPE of Rural America, Ganesh Sitaraman, Morgan Ricks, and Christopher Serkin discuss regulation’s role in geographic inequality, and Elizabeth Sepper and James Nelson examine the political economy behind the rise of public yet religious hospitals. Plus, two (count’em two) new LPE-related fellowships, as. . .
An alliance between religious and economic conservatives is playing a central yet overlooked role in the resurgence of concentrated economic power in America, resulting in the transfer of public funds, services, and decision-making away from more democratic institutions. Nowhere is this more evident than in the rise of “government-religious hospitals”: these. . .
For decades now, we have been in an era of geographic divergence, with “superstar” cities and certain regions capturing growth, while others fall behind. Dominant explanations for this phenomenon focus largely on inexorable economic forces, such as globalization or the benefits of concentrating talent. Yet these explanations leave out a critical factor:. . .
If you read the New York Times or listen to certain economists, you’ve probably heard the following story: rural regions in America are economically unsustainable, irrationally resentful, and increasingly obsolete. An LPE lens can help us see why this narrative is mistaken. If we want to understand the story of rural America, we need to begin by. . .
Jonathan Harris on consumer law as work law, Alyssa Battistoni & Matthew Robinson on Reconsidering Reparations, an upcoming LPE Conference(!!), a call for submissions from the JLPE, and new pieces from Sandeep Vaheesan, Dan Rohde, and others.
Central to Táíwò’s case for reparations is the idea of inertia. This is a useful message for economists, particularly of the mainstream bent, to hear. Without significant changes in the social provisioning processes, wealth and advantage, along with poverty and disadvantage, will continue to accumulate. No marginal change in a tax code or behavioral. . .
Building on Adom Getachew’s account of anticolonial “worldmaking,” Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò defends reparations as a worldmaking project aimed at creating a world free from domination. Yet given this ambition, his targets for climate justice seem, if anything, too modest: why stop with eliminating tax havens or endowing the Global Climate Fund? Why. . .
A growing number of employers are relying on Training Repayment Agreement Provisions to discourage workers from quitting. Courts, meanwhile, have routinely rejected legal challenges that claim these agreements violate employment laws, such as wage-and-hour laws and non-compete limitations. There is, however, another legal mechanism to stop this harmful and. . .
Charmaine Chua, Desiree Fields, & David Stein denounce the University of California’s investment in Blackstone, Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò kicks off a symposium on his recent book Reconsidering Reparations, and Daniel Aldana Cohen reflects on the book’s focus on historical time. Plus, the best new LPE-related conferences, events, post-docs,. . .
Reconsidering Reparations offers several sound policy proposals about how to pursue reparations and climate justice. Yet its main contribution to the realm of climate politics has little to do with policy. Rather, it’s about a way of situating oneself in historical time. Unlike ordinary philosophical parables that freeze time and abstract away. . .
For better or worse, our world stands on the precipice of major changes. Our current energy system is driving a rapidly unfolding climate crisis, and the need for total transformation “at every level of society” is now the prevailing scientific opinion. Given this context, Reconsidering Reparations argues for two things. First, reparations for. . .